Apocalypse continues

We go out walking every day, just because there is nothing else we can do. We keep our distances, and the Woman has set new boundaries for Kona. He no longer can interact with other dogs, since she has been reading that while pets don’t get Covid 19, people say that the virus can live on their fur just as well as any other surface. The Woman has not allowed all the folk that think he is so cute to pet him. So, Kona is experiencing as much of this shut down as we are.

We got some possibly good news today. It turns out that the City of Biloxi has determined that an RV Park, or at least our RV Park, is an essential business. Therefore, under Mississippi and Biloxi current Coronus rules, our RV Park is not required to close. That is, unless, we don’t wash our hands or we gather in groups more than 10. Our plan is to comply.

The Woman still keeps an eye on the folk coming into the RV Park. It seems like there is a considerable influx of folk from heavily hit coronavirus areas, particularly Louisiana. We don't know that people are attempting to escape the horrors in New Orleans, but we just have to assume so. We are keeping our distance from pretty much everyone, and the Woman wipes pretty much anything we touch with antibiotic wipes.

Talk to you soon.

More new reality

The Woman had an appointment with a physical therapist to help with her sciatica. When she arrived, she was given a mask, had her temperature taken, and was placed in a room for observation prior to her being able to see the therapist. When she said that she had been to New Orleans a couple weeks ago, they almost cancelled her appointment. Of course, Coronavirus cancelled it. The Woman sits in the front window and watches as every new RV comes into the RV Park, just to make sure none of them are from New York or Louisiana. Here is the new way that our neighbor Waffle House is trying to stay open.

Talk to you soon.

New reality

Despite such orders being dictated in other states, the governor of Mississippi has not issued a complete closure here. While most bars have closed and most restaurants don’t serve in their dinning rooms, many have remained open relying on either drive up windows or take out orders. However, until you get out of your car and get to a door, you have no clear idea if the business is open or not. The Waffle House at our RV Park has decided not to risk anybody assuming that they are not open. Curious times call for curious solutions.

We walk the manmade Mississippi coastal beaches pretty much daily, both for exercise and to kill some time in the day. Although there is no Spring Break crowds here, we still see a few people doing the beach thing, but the numbers are really small. We have seen a few folk rent jet skis and water bikes, but I know the owner of the rental kiosk is just getting hammered. But Harrison County still wants you to visit their beaches, and above all, just have fun!

Talk to you soon.

Katrina was 15 years ago!

Hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf Coast in 2005 – 15 years ago. But when you talk to locals, they still talk about what they will be doing once the area recovers from its affects. In addition to all the buildings lost, apparently hundreds of trees were killed during the hurricane. After Katrina, Marlin Miller, as sculptor from Fort Walton Beach Florida, decided to repay the folks of Biloxi for their assistance during Hurricane Ivan. He transformed the dead trees into a fabulous sculpture garden all along Highway 90.

We have been using the local Edgewater Mall as our preferred location to get steps in, especially when it is inclement or just plain too hot. On our last visit we learned that Marlin Miller continues to help Biloxi recover from Katrina. A couple years ago he sculpted and donated to the City what he named “Katrina 2014”. It is made from hundreds of pieces of driftwood recovered after Hurricane Katrina. Miller says he was inspired by the power of human nature to rise above disaster.

We learned that the beach in Biloxi is man-made. In fact, the beach all along the Gulf Coast stretching from Biloxi to Henderson point is totally man-made. The 200-foot-wide beach stretches 26 miles, making it the largest man-made beach in the world – pretty impressive!

In our many strolls up and down the man-made beach we have been taking in all the sights it has to offer. One of the few structures to survive Katrina was built in 1848. The cast iron Biloxi lighthouse stood up to Katrina, as it had to dozens of hurricanes over the years. While it is not open to climb, we still enjoyed checking it out.

Talk to you soon.

Big change in plans

We knew it would happen, but we were keeping out fingers crossed. But we just learned that we don’t need to begin working our way slowly north at the end of the month, as the Kentucky Derby has been rescheduled – at least for now – to the first Sunday in September. So, with no particular desire to get on the road with the current panic in the US, we have asked the RV Park if we can stay another month, and fortunately, they said “yes”. We will figure out what happens next after the month brings us more news on the Coronavirus.

We did make one good decision while trying to get a few fill-in things at Target. The Woman decided she wanted a medical thermometer, but of course in the in-store CVS and in the personal care aisles, every single shelf or rack for thermometers was empty. The Woman decided maybe we should try the infant section, and lo and behold, there actually was a baby thermometer there. Thank goodness a baby thermometer and one for adults has only one difference – a picture of a baby on the packaging.

While I know we have been sheltered here – Biloxi just isn’t as dense as most of the US, and the local governments aren’t as inclined to make really tough restrictions – but everything here is weird. The mall is empty, retail stores, most of which are still open, have very few patrons. Our Waffle House has posted their take-out phone number in all their windows. Some National retail chains have just shuttered up all their locations – this Stein Mart is literally shuttered!

The Woman went to her physical therapy session today. Before agreeing to treat her, they took her temperature, and then monitored her in a room, presumably to look for signs of coughing or other respiratory stress. When they specifically asked her if she had been to New Orleans recently, she couldn’t help but tell the truth. She thought they were going to turn her away on the spot, but when her temperature was normal and she showed no respiratory symptoms, they finally treated her.

Today on live TV Trump said he was very disappointed in young folk still going out to dinner and not heeding his recommendations regarding social distancing. And yet, yesterday we visited the Gulf Islands Visitor Center operated by the National Park Service. There were way more than 10 people in that very small building. Today we thought about visiting Ship Island, also a National Park Service site, and also still open and operating.  However, to get there, you have to spend an hour each way on a small, crowded ferry boat. Don't federal government recommendations apply to the National Park Service? Sadly, another iconic festival has been cancelled due to Covid-19.

While Mississippi has not instituted a statewide closure on restaurants and bars, there is very little activity for those that remain open. There is a Waffle House on the corner of the RV Park, and we have been there a couple of times to contribute to their employee’s tips – oh, and get a pretty yummy breakfast as well. The last time we went, we were the only people in there. 

So, as you can see, our local Waffle House is encouraging calling and ordering take out, which I have done, carefully practicing my social distancing. Sadly, the usual 5 or 6 person crew at the Waffle House is now down to 2 – one to answer the phone and one to cook. The person answering the phone can also play the server if someone actually wants to eat in the store. While I know what the sign says, somehow I don’t think this restaurant is really hiring right now.

Talk to you soon.

And even more exploring

We did some more exploring today. Our adventure started out at NASA’s Stennis Space Center on the Mississippi – Louisiana border. While we never even knew this existed, it turns out that all rocket engines used by NASA were tested here, and some were actually developed here. Werner Bon Braun, the famous German rocket scientist, worked here in the early days. Even commercial jet engines were tested here, including the Rolls Royce engines used on the Boeing Dreamliner.

We toured the visitor center and walked among all the NASA artifacts like suits, capsules and lunar rocks – it was awesome! We thought about visiting a different day, but with the Corona Virus causing things to be cancelled or closed, we decided to go since it was open. The impact of Covid 19 even here at a NASA facility was obvious – thankfully it was open for us to visit at this time.

Since we were reasonably close, we decided to pay a visit to New Orleans again. While we were here a couple weeks the last time, I don’t think you can ever get too much of a really great city. Even though it was a few weeks after Mardi Gras, much of the decorations (and sadly much of the trash on the streets) were still left over from this rockin good time.

The Woman’s niece, Charity, had relocated from New York City to New Orleans withing the last month. So we made arrangements to grab lunch while we were in town, and catch up on all things family. We learned that she was busy – doing interviews for jobs, visiting houses for rent, all the things necessary to make this here new home. We learned that she has several good job prospects – one that she has already had 11 interviews with – but not as lucky on the home front. She seems so happy that it made the Woman smile.

5 miles from our lunch location we identified a Whispering Giant we had never seen before. The 12^th carving by Peter Wolf Toth, it had fallen into disrepair, and we learned when we had bumped into Mr. Toth in Columbia South Carolina that he had just come from New Orleans where he had done similar repairs to his work of art as he was currently doing in South Carolina. Sadly, when we got to Brechtel Park where it was located, we learned that the Park is open daylight hours daily – except for Wednesdays where it is closed!

Fortunately, the Woman spotted the Whispering Giant lest than a block from the locked gate at the entrance. I managed, despite my growing belly, to wriggle under the gate and make my way to the stature. It was in great shape; I am sure in part due to Mr. Toth’s recent work on it. Luckily nobody was patrolling the park, so I was able to sneak in, and then shimmy my way back under the locked gates with no police or park ranger encounters, thank goodness.


Back in the RV Park we stumbled on another amusing vanity license plate. We spotted this on a 42-foot-long Newmar motorhome, with a couple of snowbirds escaping Iowa for the winter. I couldn’t help but chuckle.

Things remain weird at the RV Park. The number of families escaping school closure continues to grow, and more and more businesses are closing, or modifying their operations to adapt to the pandemic. We are now actually seeing the Walmart shelves emptying. We were surprised to see the Carnival Valor docked in Gulfport, but learned that the cruise industry needs places to park their idle ships. The Valor will soon be joined by the Carnival Freedom, and later in the week a Royal Caribbean ship will join them as well. They will park in the harbor, and be allowed to dock weekly for provisions, but their crew will not be allowed to disembark. Things just keep getting weirder - hopefully some relief in the pressure will come soon. 

Talk to you soon.

Even more exploring

We’ve seen Sandhill Cranes before, in several locations in Texas. But we learned there was a highly endangered species of Sandhill Crane near Biloxi living in the Mississippi Sandhill Crane National Wildlife Refuge. Before Europeans arrived, the Mississippi Sandhill Crane, which is a non-migratory species, roamed the Gulf coastal areas of Mississippi, Louisiana and Texas. As populations in Texas and Louisiana mushroomed, the Crane’s habitat disappeared and, accordingly, so did the Crane.

Now the US Forest Service says there are only 129 Mississippi Sandhill Cranes living all within the National Wildlife Refuge. We hiked the Fontainebleau unit in hopes of spotting one of these elusive beauties. We walked all 3 miles of the trails in the unit, but we weren’t having any luck. Then, at the last observation deck, I thought I saw some movement way off in the distance. Since we were silly enough to have forgotten our binoculars, I decided to snap a picture of the area where I saw movement. When I zoomed in edit mode, this guy emerged at full magnification – bonus!

Checking the official website on the outside chance that we might find a hidden Frank Lloyd Wright gem, we came up empty here on Gulf Coast. However, we did find the Charnley – Norwood House, a private home that was designed in 1890 by the “Father of the Skyscraper” Louis Sullivan. It turns out that Sullivan was Frank Lloyd Wright’s first boss. One of his first jobs as a young draftsman was to work with Sullivan on the design of this home in Ocean Springs Mississippi. 

While we had been in the general area before, we never made it to the Gulf Islands National Seashore. Managed by the National Park Service, we headed there with the pooch to hike some trails and do a picnic lunch – we used to do a lot of picnic lunches, but we hadn’t done one on this outing – actually, hadn’t done one in 2020 at all. The trails were nice, and especially appreciated by Kona – many trails in units managed by the National Park Service do not allow dogs.

We didn’t spot a lot of wildlife, although we did enjoy the hikes. We had hoped to see a Rec Breasted Merganser which are supposed to be resident here, but no such luck yet. We did however see one guy that we had expected to see in Florida, but never did. We had to go to Mississippi to actually see a gator up close.

Covid 19 update – we are starting to bump into families in our RV Park, more than we had seen all winter. We learned that many are from Louisiana where schools are closed, so they packed up their kids and escaped their total confinement. When we arrived in Biloxi, we learned that KISS was in the midst of their End of the Road Tour, and would be playing yesterday at the Mississippi Gulf Coast Coliseum, which is walking distance from Colectiva II. Of course, we bought tickets and of course they cancelled. At the age of 70, I was looking forward to seeing Gene Simmons and the gang. No luck yet in getting our money back!

Talk to you soon.

More exploring

We headed out to explore our home base – Biloxi. As we have driven back and forth along Highway 90, we have seen a vast number of signs that have the look of historical markers, so we decided to grab the pooch and check them out. We were stunned as we walked from sign to sign and learned that the signs were there to remind folk of magnificent old structures that graced the Gulf Coast before Hurricane Katrina in 2005. Even the church where Jefferson Davis worshipped, which had stood since before the Civil War, was washed away due to Katrina.

I knew that Katrina was bad, but didn’t really realize how much of the South was impacted. After walking by over a dozen historical markers designating important structures lost to Katrina, we started thinking about all the less important structures that were lost but probably not commemorated with a marker. It wasn’t until we got to a marine park in Gulfport that we got some idea as to the devastation power of Katrina. As you can see, the high-water mark for the tidal surges for Katrina would leave the Woman 16 feet underwater!

Not far from the series of historical markers noting the devastation of Katrina we discovered the Hurricane Camille Memorial. Camille hit the area in 1969. While not as bad as Katrina, at the time it was the 2^nd most powerful tropical cyclone to strike the US. 259 folks died in the US from Camille, but this Memorial helps draw a more somber message. On this marble we counted 6 members of the Williams family whose bodies were never found. Sadly, we also saw that 11 members of the Williams family died. Dang.

After all the coastal hurricane misery we decided we needed something a bit lighter. We ended up deciding to go a lot lighter. We headed to a 50-year-old family owned furniture factory that claimed to have made the world’s largest rocking chair. While we can’t actually verify that this is the world’s largest rocking chair, after the Woman got close up, we are believers.

Keeping to the theme we started we headed to the Edgewater Mall. Only about a mile from Colectiva II, we have been using it on rainy days to get in some steps. Little did we know that as we walked the aisles of the mall that we would stumble upon the world’s largest puzzle. At about $400, I am not sure that I need to take a shot at this challenge. At 42,000 pieces, I am not sure that we could even build this inside Colectiva II.

Talk to you soon.

Exploring the Mississippi Gulf Coast

Gulf Beach Resort where we are spending March is right on the Gulf. While we are now far enough West that we don’t get sun downs, being on the Gulf is still awesome. We are actually across Highway 90 from the water, but the Resort did a nice job of building an elevated deck, where we plant our buts every sunny afternoon for spectacular views and some Scrabble.

Hopping across the road we learned that we are actually on the Mississippi Coastal Birding Trail. There is a paved trail just inside the sand that we try to walk on every day that it is not raining. Luckily, so far, it has only been raining about 20% of the time.

In Miramar Beach we didn’t see many of the prettier water birds – we mostly saw Pelicans and Gulls. We were pleased to find that along the Mississippi Coastal Birding Trail, there were lots of Great Blue Herons, as well as other birds that we always enjoy seeing. At London Beach we spotted three Snowy Egrets. This guy didn’t seem to care that we got really close – either that or he was posing.

We remembered that Landry’s always posts a $25 birthday credit to our loyalty account, so I looked it up, and there it was. So, we headed to the Golden Nugget and used it for a nice meal at Lillie’s, a Landry brand we had never tried before. While on the Mississippi Coastal Birding Trail we spotted a restaurant, we thought would be fun, but we didn’t get $25 off there. Maybe one day we will still check it out – it appears to have great views!

So, on National Margarita Day, the Woman got a Margarita. Then when National Egg McMuffin Day arrived, the Woman got an Egg McMuffin. So, when National Day of the Woman gets here, what do you think I might get?

Talk to you soon. 

Next

As we made our way out of Miramar Beach, we decided to pay a visit to Baghdad – not Iraq, and not quite spelled the same, we paid a visit to Bagdad Florida. We had been to Bagdad Arizona before, and although small, it was actually quite large compared to Bagdad Florida. But there was one claim to fame here that it didn’t share with its counterpart in Arizona – it was the home of famed PGA golfer Bubba Watson!

Of course, it had to happen. The Woman celebrate National Pizza Day when it came around on February 9. God forbid that the Woman not pay homage to National Margarita Day, just two days before my birthday on February 22. Somehow, I missed National Hangover Day, appropriately falling on January 1. But when we learned that McDonalds had named March 2 as National Egg McMuffin Day, the results were all but certain.

Since we didn’t know how many dry or warm days we might see here, we headed out our first day to walk the Biloxi Bay Bridge. Just short of 2 miles long, the bridge has a nice, wide dedicated walking/biking lane with a great view of the shore lines as well as the navigation channels. Kona joined us, and was dismayed at our roughly 3-mile round trip on concrete without a single tree or bush in sight. We had fun when we got to the top of the bridge and found all kinds of locks declaring someone’s love.

At the end of the bridge entering Ocean Springs Mississippi we got a bonus. Crooked Feather was the 17^th Whispering Giant carved by Hungarian artist Peter Wolf Toth. It turns out that we had passed Crooked Feather on our way to Gulf Beach RV Resort, but we just hadn’t spotted it by the side of the road. With this find we now have seen exactly half of his carvings that still exist.

On our way I was amused by a restaurant we passed somewhere in southern Alabama. I always appreciate a clever marketing mind.

Talk to you soon. 

Ghost town

Apparently, there is a mass exodus on the eve of Spring Break. When we got here the first of February, every single site was filled – now it seems more like a ghost town. While all the snow birds want to winter here, they don’t have no stomach for the hordes of young’uns. All week we have been hearing about the ban of alcohol on the beach which starts March 1, and all the locals bemoaning the adverse impact on their revenues. When we planned to head out on March 1, we didn’t know we would be leaving with the masses. There are 30 RV’s leaving on 3/1, and there is even a local traffic officer that will hope to make it a bit more orderly.

We took the last chance with some nice weather to enjoy the Miramar Beach area. We headed over to Pompano Joes, a seafood restaurant, to actually get some real Gulf fish – not just fish dip. The food was really good, and our stroll along the boardwalk while waiting for our text that our table was ready was even better. While I know it’s a bit hard to tell from this picture, this kite surfer came off a wave and caught more than 30 feet of air, doing a flip on his way down. He stuck the landing BTW.

Also, as we walked along the beach awaiting our table, we took in all the sites that the beach had to offer. I imagine folk felt cooped up by the cold and wet, so even though it is not bikini weather, it is sunny so everyone was on the sand. This was probably the most impressive structure we saw today.

The more we strolled around today, taking advantage of the sun and getting our last looks in before we leave, we came to the understanding that pretty much nobody lives full time anywhere near the water. Every building we saw was a vacation rental, some single-family dwellings and some multi-family condos. I am sure it is part of the marketing positioning, but it seems like each unit has a catchy name – and all of them are nautical in nature. While I can’t say this was the best name we found, it certainly is in the running.

The Woman has officially begun to freak. All you hear about on the news or on the internet is the outbreak of the Corona Virus and the cases of Covid 19 in the US. So, she made me go to the local grocery store so that she could stock up on canned soup and chili, toilet paper and hand sanitizer. I thought she was nuts – the stores here looked the same as they had all month. But then our daughter, Karen, sent us some pics of what the huge, big box grocery stores look like in Seattle. I guess I stand corrected.

Talk to you soon.

Moving on

We will be heading on to Biloxi for the month of March. As we have passed Fat Tuesday, the die hard snow birds who go over the top to decorate their sites have moved on to the next holiday. While it is several weeks away, we are seeing all kinds of St. Patrick’s Day decorations, and we welcome the changed look of many of the coaches we walk by each day.

So, before we leave Miramar Beach, we decided to head back to one of our favorite lunches. The Grayton Beach Brewery has a line up of locally crafted beers that is compelling. But, the combination of the smoked snapper dip with the overnight smoked chicken wings can’t be beat – it leaves me wondering if I have died and gone to heaven!

Talk to you soon.